By Frank Kinslow
My father was a warrior by profession and by deed. He fought in World War II, Korea and fought twice in the jungles of Vietnam. He was not a very religious man but he was especially spiritual. In this regard he aligned more with the code of Bushido, the code of honor developed among the samurai, the military warriors of Japan. During World War II, while fighting in the Pacific theater, my father came by a katana, a samurai sword.
As a boy, I remember him showing me the sword and explaining the significance that it had for the soldier who owned it. He told me that these swords were passed down from father to son as a symbol of the moral principles that support the spiritual warrior in war and during peace. He showed me the handle and told me that under the sharkskin wrapping was written the family history. He showed me the blade that I was not allowed to touch, and explained that the Japanese sword makers were the best in the world when this sword was made, almost 250 years ago.
My father said that the blade was imbibed with spiritual strength that both fed and was nurtured by the owner of the sword.
Legend taught the spiritual power of a katana could be demonstrated by placing the blade in the path of a leaf as it flowed downstream. If the leaf hit the sword and wrapped around the blade the sword was spiritually weak. If the leaf was cut in half by the katana the sword was strong in the spirit of Bushido.
However, if the floating leaf approached the sword and then flowed effortlessly around the blade without touching it, this was the sword of supreme spiritual power.
Twelve years after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima my family moved to Yokohama, Japan. We had many Japanese friends and learned to love and respect the people and culture of Japan. During the three years we lived with the Japanese my father tried to find the family who owned the katana. Neither my father nor our Japanese friends were successful. Years later, before my father died he passed the sword on to me.
There have been great injustices performed on every strata of human life. War has been ever present. Country against country, clan against clan but in the end it is now, as it has always been, one person against another. Warring between countries is an illusion. A country cannot go to war, only its people can. We continue to expend copious amounts of rhetoric aimed at abolishing war. Documents of peace are written, as if the paper has the power. We shake our head at the evening news and wonder why people can’t just get along and then shake a fist at a slow-moving driver on our way home to subjugate our spouse and children.
The world is a violent place primarily because we have lost ourselves in the frantic milieu of other Self-searchers. The world is a violent place because we all too easily see others as the cause of our pain–pain generated within us and projected outward. My father, and every other man, woman and child who has ever been at war, had to confront this issue and come to some sort of conditional peace to make sense of their lives. Some have been more successful than others but almost all fail to resolve the issue of war on the personal level.
The answer is in the blade and the leaf.
We can vanquish our enemies or yield to their aggression. It really doesn’t matter. Until we generate our own personal power; respect for our inner Self, anything more involved than drawing our next breath will generate only more violence. May you find peace in the New Year.
Dr. Frank J. Kinslow has been researching and teaching healing techniques for more than 35 years. He draws from his clinical experience as a chiropractic physician, in-depth studies into Eastern esoteric philosophies and practices, and an ardent love of relativity and quantum physics. In 2007, he created the Quantum Entrainment process of instant healing. Since that time, his books and teachings have helped tens of thousands of people around the world. Based in Sarasota, FL, Frank continues to write and teach extensively. For more information visit www.kinslowsystem.com.